


Weathering the Storm

by PensiveDevil



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 22:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1165123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PensiveDevil/pseuds/PensiveDevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A week of hell following the 2014 Royal Rumble takes its toll on the normally thick-skinned Hunter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weathering the Storm

He didn’t know why he bothered sometimes.

He’d known it was going to be an uphill battle since the day he’d decided to give it a go with Stephanie. It hadn’t been a decision he’d reached lightly. He’d spent weeks mulling it over, seeking out family and trusted friends and co-workers for advice. He knew the risk he was taking, and it was a considerable one—the potential destruction of his entire career in professional wrestling if the relationship went awry. Of lesser significance professionally, but to him just as important from a personal standpoint, was the effect that dating Vince’s daughter might have on his relationships with the boys backstage.

“Fuck ‘em,” Mark Calaway had told him when he’d brought up this particular concern. “You’ve been here since ’95, longer than most of these guys. I’ve watched you bust your ass for the last five years. I know you’ve earned your spot. Everybody here who matters knows it. Your personal life isn’t their business. If anybody has a problem with it, fuck ‘em.”

 _Fuck ‘em_. It had become his inner mantra over the last fourteen years, not just in relation to those backstage who wanted to hold his relationship with Steph against him, but to his critics outside the company as well, and unfortunately it was a mantra that he had never stopped needing. Over the years he had been forced to come to the unhappy conclusion that there was a certain, loud contingent of wrestling fans and dirtsheet writers who would eternally hate him, no matter what. When he had still been wrestling full-time, he’d been accused of holding down younger talent and being a camera hog; now that he was only wrestling a few times a year at most and the majority of his time was devoted to helping run the company behind the scenes, he was accused of… holding down younger talent and being a camera hog. All the time and energy he’d put into envisioning and building the WWE Performance Center, the time spent away from his three young daughters so he could be as hands-on as possible with the developmental system down south, didn’t seem to matter to anybody. Nor the fact that, at most, he only appeared in one or two segments each week on Raw anymore.

Now to add to his list of high crimes and misdemeanors, his haters had added the alleged burial of Daniel Bryan, and the walking out of CM Punk. The Bryan part… he could understand, to an extent. The whole point of that angle was the struggle of an underdog fighting to overcome the machine, being overlooked and ignored until, in the end, he finally triumphed. It was about the chase. The payoff would be worth it for the fans in the end, but the lines between fiction and reality had become so blurred that many of them seemed to think the company was legitimately underutilizing Bryan. It wasn’t in the cards for him to win the Rumble, so the decision had been made to keep him out of it entirely.

“They’ll go fuckin’ nuts if he loses twice in one night,” had been Vince’s logic, and Hunter had agreed.

Nobody had been ready for the level of the crowd’s anger when poor Rey Mysterio Jr had come out as the last Rumble entrant, guaranteeing that Bryan wouldn’t be in the match. Rey had been one of the company’s biggest fan-favorites for over a decade; for the rest of the night, the crowd booed him like he was the most hated heel in the history of the business. The winner of the match, Hunter’s friend Dave Batista, who had just returned to the company after a few years’ hiatus, received even worse treatment upon his victory.

Rey took it all in stride, but Dave had flipped a few birds on his way backstage. _We’ll have to turn him heel soon. They’re gonna hate him anyway now_.

The online chatter overnight made it abundantly clear who the majority of fans were blaming for their disappointment in the Rumble: Hunter.

 _Apparently I run the whole damn company now. I’ll have to let Vince know_ , he thought with a smirk.

As if Sunday night wasn’t bad enough, Monday somehow ended up worse. _Much_ worse.

Out of the blue, CM Punk, one of the top stars in the company, walked out. He was burned out— _fuck, isn’t everybody?_ —and unhappy with what they had planned for him. He wanted to main event Wrestlemania, but Vince was planning on having him wrestle Hunter—the company’s biggest anti-authority figure, versus one-half of the Authority. But apparently wrestling Hunter wasn’t Punk’s idea of a “big name feud.” So Punk had left. Without even giving the creative team the chance to write him off. In one fell swoop, short- and long-term plans were turned on their heads, and the crew scrambled to re-write Raw with only a couple of hours to go before the show began.

Steve Austin had pulled a similar stunt back in 2002. Unhappy with creative, he’d, as Hunter had put it at the time, “taken his ball and gone home.” Steve was a friend but Hunter had been truly disgusted that the man could just walk out on the company like that and screw over management and his co-workers. Steve had apologized since and said he regretted it now. Hunter doubted Punk would ever have the class to admit that what he’d done wasn’t the proper way to handle business. _A 15 year-old in a 35 year-old’s body._

Punk’s unexpected exit had caused a rift in the company; there were those who sympathized with him, and those who found his actions unprofessional and deplorable. It had also led to disagreement between Vince, who desperately wanted Punk back in time for ‘Mania, no matter what concessions had to be made, and Hunter, who felt slighted at Punk’s inference that wrestling Hunter at the biggest show of the year was somehow beneath him.

“Fuck him,” he’d snarled at Vince. “He goes and screws everybody over Monday evening, he screws the boys over, he screws the fans over, he screws _you_ over, and you want to roll out the red carpet?”

He’d been seeing red by then, and Vince’s groans about the effect Punk’s absence would have on the Wrestlemania buy-rate went in one ear and out the other.

Naturally, the consensus among the fans, yet again, seemed to be that Punk walking out was _Hunter’s_ fault. A horde of irate Punk fans had hijacked the NXT taping that week, chanting Punk’s name throughout the entire show. Hunter had been backstage. The disrespect being shown to the NXT wrestlers, who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Punk situation, left him fuming. _The fucker wasn’t even fired or anything. What part of ‘he walked out’ don’t they get?_

He was dreading Monday. It was probably going to be the most hostile crowd he’d been exposed to since he’d started with the company back in 1995. He wondered if it might be better to stay out of the ring that night—to just do a backstage segment, or maybe not appear at all. He could see the online commentary already; the accusations of cowardice. _“He’s hiding from us!”_ On the other hand, he’d seen hostile crowds before, and what they could do. He’d seen his buddies Kevin and Scott pelted with trash during the early days of the NWO in WCW. He’d seen Shawn get hit in the head with a battery thrown at him during an outdoor event in Boston prior to Wrestlemania XIV. And he’d been dinged in the head with a glass bottle at a house show during the early days of DX in ’97, when the crowds were still borderline riotous in the aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob. His concerns were far from groundless. At the end of the day, a mob was a mob.

_I am the most hated man in professional wrestling. Maybe ever._

In 1999, it was a title he would’ve aspired to. But he was young then, and just reaching the top, and he barely knew Stephanie at all. _Another lifetime ago_ , he mused. Being hated in 1999 would’ve meant being hated as a _character_.

 _They hate me as a human being_.

He slept maybe four hours a night, on a good night. Most days, he was only able to spend a few hours at most with his kids. The rest of the time he was either at the office, or at a live event, or at the Performance Center in Orlando, or on one of the company planes flying from one event to another, or trying to squeeze in a workout. Working himself to death, running himself ragged, missing his little girls growing up… _and for what?_

To entertain people around the world _… who legitimately hate me._

His cellphone rang. He was hardly in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment. He cast a wary glance at the screen.

 _Shawn_.

He frowned. He was almost positive Shawn was supposed to be out in the middle of nowhere in a tree-stand or something right now. He sighed. If Shawn was taking time out of his hunting schedule to call him, he may as well answer.

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“Hey you. Heard you’re havin’ a rough week.”

“… Who told you?”

A chuckle. “You know I can’t tell you that. My sources are strictly confidential.”

Hunter grinned in spite of himself. Steph and Shawn had been collaborating with each other for years now to keep Hunter’s spirits up when work had gotten to be too much. He had to admit, they made a formidable tag team.

“Yeah, it’s… it’s been bad, I’m not gonna lie.”

“I’ve heard all the gory details already so you don’t need to worry about rehashin’ it for me. I’m flyin’ out Monday mornin’ for Raw.”

“I can’t ask you to do that. You were just at the Rumble. I know you’ve got stuff goin’ on--”

“I think it goes without sayin’ that you’re in for a shitty Monday. I’m gonna be there for moral support. NOPE NO JUST NO,” Shawn raised his voice in feigned anger as Hunter vainly attempted to argue. “I’m comin’ to Raw and that’s that.”

“Okay, okay. Geez. So forceful.”

“Well, sometimes you need to be reminded of who wears the pants in this relationship,” Shawn chided.

“I’m practically the boss you know,” Hunter said in mock indignation.

“I’m older,” Shawn retorted.

“Oh so we’re gonna play _that_ card are we?”

“It’s my favorite card to play, ‘cause I’ll always have it.”

Hunter could only laugh. Less than a minute of silly banter with Shawn and he was already feeling much better. Shawn was one of only a handful of people in the entire world that could have that effect on him.

“In all seriousness though,” Hunter said soberly, “I’ll be really glad to see you. Monday’s prob’ly gonna be terrible from top to bottom.”

“Anything I can do to make it even slightly better for you, you know I’ll do. I love you buddy.”

“I love you too man. Seeya Monday.”

“Seeya Monday Hunt.”

He placed the phone back on his desk, still smiling, when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his shoulders, and soft lips brush his left cheek.

“I’m guessing that was Shawn?” Stephanie inquired innocently, but the mischievous glint in her eyes gave away the game.

“Yeah it was. I wonder who could’ve tipped him off.” Hunter quirked an eyebrow at his wife.

She gave an exaggerated shrug. “No idea. None at all.”

He lifted a hand, cupped the back of her neck, pulled her in for a long kiss.

“I don’t know what I’d do without the two of you.”

She stroked his cheek with the tips of her fingers. “It’ll get better. We’ll weather the storm like we always do.”

“Right.”

She leaned in and kissed him again. They held each other for a long moment in silence. He felt infinitely better than he had a few minutes ago. Nothing had changed; everything that had made his week so awful was still the same, and Monday was still going to be a trial for sure, but between Steph and Shawn, he felt like he’d be able to cope.

As for everyone else… Mark’s words, his mantra, came back to him once more.

Fuck ‘em.

**Author's Note:**

> -Obviously the Daniel Bryan angle has yet to play itself out. I'm writing under the assumption that it's an elaborate storyline which will lead to him getting a lengthy WWE Title run when it culminates--which I've believed since last year's Summerslam--but of course time will tell.
> 
> -I'm also writing this as the story of CM Punk's walkout is still unfolding, so I ask the reader's pardon if any details in this story end up proving wrong in the end. The story seems to evolve a little bit every day. Maybe it will end up being a work, who knows.
> 
> -Shawn Michaels was indeed beamed by a battery thrown by a fan at the Boston event preceding Wrestlemania XIV, and was pissed off enough to temporarily walk out of the event, leaving Hunter & Chyna hanging in the ring for awhile and forcing Hunter to improvise on the mic to tide over the crowd. Shawn eventually cooled off and came back, to continue their angle with Tyson and Austin.
> 
> -Hunter was hit by a bottle thrown during a house show in late '97, I believe in Memphis. He and Shawn were supposed to be having a tag match, but the crowd ended up being so unruly that the show was brought to an early conclusion.


End file.
